Information sharing with CRA

[dpenabill]

The February issue of the Canada Gazette includes a proposed regulation to be added to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, which will allow CIC to collect the SIN number of a PR who applies for a new PR card or for a PR Travel Document, and further provides for information sharing with CRA.

In the rationale portion of the formal notice it states:

The regulatory amendments would provide CIC with an additional tool to detect individuals who do not meet the residency obligation set out in the IRPA to maintain their permanent residence in Canada. These individuals may be unlawfully receiving benefits and services (e.g. child tax benefits and health benefits) at the expense of Canadian taxpayers. Implementation of regulations to enable CIC to detect this sort of fraud would increase public confidence in the immigration process.

 

[Rob_TO]

I wonder if they may also extend this to the PR application process, that would allow CIC to also check up on if PR applicants are working under expired IEC visas, who are mistakenly under assumption they have implied work status?

This is quite a common occurrence, yet it seems only a very small number of people have actually been caught and had their PR apps delayed, I assume due to CIC and CRA not routinely sharing this kind of info.

 

[SMA.DE]

What kind of information they are going to share? just the information shown on Notice of Assessment, or detailed tax return information like employer, self-employment, tuition credit....
Also anyone has idea when this will come into force?

 

[TeddyXYZ]

It's a good idea they will finally catch all that people that working illegally or with expired SIN number.

 

[dpenabill]

What kind of information they are going to share? just the information shown on Notice of Assessment, or detailed tax return information like employer, self-employment, tuition credit....
Also anyone has idea when this will come into force?

It is not clear to what extent detailed information will be shared.

There are already numerous databases of personal information maintained regarding each and every Permanent Resident.

Since part of the objective is to identify individuals collecting benefits they are not entitled to collect, I suspect the respective government bodies will have fairly extensive access to details.

Getting a lot, lot tougher to play games with the government. Most people will either applaud this or pretend to applaud it.

Without revisiting the proposed regulatory amendments and looking at the relevant statutory provisions, all I can offer about when this is going to happen is that it could be happening soon, probably some time this year.

Real question for many is to what extent will it open the window on older information, like for last year or the year before.

May be time for some to buy a fan so it isn't so obvious how much they are sweating.